New caddie for Tiger Woods stirs an old grievance with Butch Harmon

Tiger Woods has finally got a new caddie but he has been accused of going behind Dustin Johnson's back

Tiger Woods shakes hands with Joe LaCava, Fred Couples's former caddie, during a practice round for the 2010 US Masters. LaCava has now left Dustin Johnson to work for the world's former No1. Photograph: David J Phillip/AP David J. Phillip/AP

And so the soap opera continued on just another day in the world of professional golf, during which two important lessons were learned. The first is that this particular sporting community is remarkably tight, with a small cast of interchangeable characters flitting from one role to another, from one camp to the next. Second, we learned that Harmon is more easily shocked than one might have imagined.

What has shocked the Vietnam war veteran, apparently, was the way that Woods went about hiring LaCava, who signed up with Johnson only this year. "The thing that bothered me the most was [Tiger] not calling Dustin and asking if he could talk to Joe. That's the way it's done. I'm a little disappointed with the way Tiger handled it. But I'm not surprised," Harmon said during Sky Sports's coverage of the US PGA Tour's FedEx Cup finale on Sunday.

Note his comment "I'm not surprised", with its censorious implication that Woods really is beyond redemption, the kind of callow fellow who does not even respect the conventions of the locker-room fraternity.

This narrative of Woods as the irredeemable bad boy was picked up in certain corners of the US media, such as here, which accused him of trying to divert attention from an exciting Sunday in the world of golf on to himself. "This isn't the first time Woods has tried to hijack the spotlight," one American correspondent said.

There is only one problem with this characterisation of Woods's alleged behaviour – it is not true.

The news of LaCava's defection was revealed by Harmon, not Woods. Indeed, had Harmon said nothing then the Solheim Cup in Ireland and Tour Championship in Atlanta – both of which served up thrilling Sunday finishes – would have got the attention they might otherwise have received, and Woods would have gone ahead with his plan to announce LaCava's hiring later in the week.

As for the implication that Woods had gone behind Johnson's back – it turns out that LaCava had gone to Woods and asked for the job, not the other way round. "I contacted Tiger and Mark [Steinberg, his agent] because this is a unique opportunity to be part of something very special. Tiger and I have been friends for a very long time, and I know what he can do," the caddie said in a story posted on Woods's website.

This comes as no surprise to those close to LaCava, who was apparently telling friends at last month's US PGA Championship in Atlanta he had quickly become disillusioned with life on the fairways with Johnson. The caddie is a well-rounded individual, an old-school type who found it hard to come to terms with his young employer's free-wheeling style on and off the course. In short, they were a bad match.

Still, there have been plenty of caddies through the years who have endured such incompatibility in the venal cause of making top dollar. Johnson, without doubt the most naturally gifted of the new wave of young US golfers, is well-placed to make a rich man (or woman) of whoever carries his bag. Maybe LaCava would have stayed. We will never know because when he went to Woods to ask for the job, Woods replied in the affirmative.

There was disbelief in some circles the American would ditch Johnson in favour of the older player, but such incredulity was mostly confined to those outside the professional game. Inside the charmed circle of players and caddies, however, the verdict was well-nigh unanimous – Woods remains the premium player in the sport, recent results notwithstanding, and LaCava has made the sensible choice.

The two men have been around each other a lot over the years and, insomuch as caddies and players can be friends, they are. They are both very competitive and very private. LaCava does not seek publicity and Woods likes that. Most importantly perhaps, they are now bound together by the singular goal of proving the world wrong. In Woods's case he will be out to show he is not, as many have suggested, finished as a world-class player. For LaCava, he will hope to silence those who believe he is daft for giving up the bag of a player on the up for a player allegedly in terminal decline.

Will they succeed? LaCava can certainly do his bit. He is an experienced caddie and has been in contention at major championships countless times with his former employer Fred Couples (and more recently with Johnson at last summer's Open Championship). He will not panic in tense situations and can be relied on to give good advice.

But as ever with caddies, he will only be as good as his player. If Woods continues to miss fairways and putts with the depressing frequency of the past 18 months, then there is little he will be able to do.

However, if the arrival of a new caddie coincides with a revival in Woods's form then LaCava can expect to see great rewards, financially and in terms of profile. He will become famous, the man who saved Woods's career in the minds of many. Except his own, of course. And that is just how Tiger will expect it to be.